Svetovni dan lutk
objavljeno: 21. 3. 2020

Vsem lutkarjem želimo srečen dan lutk, pa čeprav doma. 


 Rada imam posebne dneve. Posebni dnevi in prazniki imajo naslove. Pod temi naslovi nam namigujejo čemu lahko posvetimo malo več časa, nekaj globljih misli, nekaj pozornosti onim s katerimi si ta poseben dan delimo. Rojstni dan, premiera, praznik, mednarodni dan tega in onega … Zdaj je že kar velika inflacija teh posebnih dni. Ampak jaz sem ta posebni dan, ta dogovor, da je danes posebni dan za lutke in lutkovno umetnost, razumela skrajno pomembno, brez inflacije – z visoko vrednostjo. Rada imam dogovore. Ker, da smo se nekaj dogovorili, smo se morali pogovarjat. Morali smo se srečat, morali smo delit, morali smo se ne strinjat in se potem strinjat. V nečem smo se združili. Nismo samo ubogali, nismo samo sprejeli, nismo samo ukazali in odredili. Staknili smoglave, kjer je vsaka razmišljala. In v tem izrednem času, kjer moramo veliko ubogat, se moramo opomnit, da smo se tako zmenili in da se strinjamo. V tem času moramo veliko zahtevat od sebe, ko razmišljamo, ko se odločamo in moramo se potrudit, da znamo poslušat, zaupat, delit.

Gledališču od nekdaj zaupam. Polno je laži, pretvar, prevar in skrivanj in totalno nevredno zaupanja. Ampak je tudi polno dogovorov, struktur, staknjenih glav, srečanj, poslušanja, zaupanja, deljenja, odločitev. Ni nujno, da zaupam čisto vsaki predstavi in vsakemu ustvarjalcu in vsakemu odločevalcu in vsakemu gledalcu in vsakemu oblikovalcu mnenj… Ampak gledališču pa! Umetnosti. Rada imam etimologijo te besede, ker ima v sebi ‘umetno’, ki izhaja iz ‘umeti’, nekaj znati in nekaj narediti z znanjem. Terja torej misel. Misel terja napor. Napor pa je delo. Ampak misel še ni gledališče, ker nimaš v tem primeru kaj ‘gledat-‘ čeprav ‘-išče’. Torej je potrebno še malo napora, iz te misli je treba nekaj naredit, da bo kaj za videt. Pokazat tisto, kar si ‘našel’ ali skupaj ‘iskal’. Ta fini miselni material postane konkreten, težek, pomemben, ima obliko, glas, barvo, smer gibanja … Abstraktno postane konkretno in specifično. Zastrašujoče odgovorno delo. Misel je lahko sila banalna, ko postaja konkretna. Lahko je tudi sila nevarna. Lahko je tudi sila blagodejna, seveda. Vedno izraža stališče. In ko se spreminja v dejanje, je to stališče jasnejše. Jasnejše od besed.

Vsaka guba na blagu, vsaka senca na konturi obraza, vsak zareza v lesu, vsaka kombinacija barv, vsak ekstremno upognjen vrat, predolga roka, izbrana okrogla oblika, počasen premik, glasen zvok, usmerjen pogled, mehek material, premor, poskok, tema … Vsaka konkretizacija je sestavljena iz misli in odločitve. Četudi hipne. Nabor sredstev kako to misel izrazit in konkretizirat je v lutkovnem svetu tako bogat, da mi kar zastane dih. Bolj kot je ideja abstraktna, bolj mora postat konkretna – in potem je zopet abstraktna. To me navdušuje! Lutkovna umetnost je lepa, estetska, poetična. In skrajno banalna, neločljivo vezana na materialno, na omejitve in na natančnost. Rada imam strukture in dogovore, rada imam gledališče. In res obožujem lutke!

Ta hip sem v središču pandemije korona virusa. Pred kratkim sem bila v središču problemov sodobnega kolonialistično-neoliberalnega zahodnjaško-superiorno-razdejanega Bližnjega vzhoda. V obeh središčih sem in se centriram na misel – in njeno konkretizacijo. Animiram misel, odnos, in skupen premislek. Vdahnimo življenje v tisto, kar se bomo skupaj dogovorili, da mora oživeti in živeti. Posebej na ta poseben dan, ko tem razmislekom lahko posvetimo malo več časa in se spomnimo v čem se strinjamo ali s čim in v čem se še ne – pa dajmo spet staknit glave, se pogovorit, razmislit, se zmenit in potem naredit!

Nika Bezeljak


Awakening a new

There is a new awakening in the Americas, and there is a loud cry for peace, freedom, justice and equality. Through protests, demonstrations and marches, Americans (those from North, Central, Caribbean and South America) continue to raise their voices and exercise their right to freedom of expression. We claim for peace, for our native indigenous communities, for the rights of women, girls and boys, for immigrants, for equity and diversity, for the environment, against poverty, for changing and overthrowing leadersand corrupt governments. The list is very long. Unfortunately, injustices drown us, and the time has come for people to unite and

raise their voices. Technology brings us closer, informs and, just as often, disinforms. It allows us to communicate instantly. The struggle is strengthened and the voices become even stronger with this new global resource. Throughout history, puppet theater was a source of entertainment, but also an instrument for protest, to express social criticism against established powers, and denounce injustice. This holds true to this today. The contemporary puppet theater of the Americas has become a great and effective ally, and an incentive which enriches the struggle, amplifying the volume and voice of those claims.
Through social networks and other publications on the Internet, we can see puppets are present in most of these manifestations and claims by the people. Peace is a fundamental human right. Peace ensures, in a way, every other right. But in a special way, there is an intrinsic link between peace and freedom. The American activist, Malcolm X, stated “You cannot separate peace from freedom because no one can be at
peace unless he has his freedom.” Freedom is that ideal state which we all have a right to, and it is what characterizes most of these struggles. The great Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “Peace begins with a smile.” Puppets are entities of peace because they evoke that feeling. Let us thank and celebrate puppets for helping us express our claims during the struggle, and for providing moments of tranquility, merriment and happiness that make us smile, which, in turn, is the principle of peace. Today, on World Puppetry Day, let’s celebrate puppets and those who bring them to life, because they are our allies, in the search for
a better world, for a better future.

Manuel Antonio Morán, Ph.D.
Voice from North America

 Voices of America for peace

Dear Puppeteers friends, partners and professionals of UNIMA, colleagues of the puppetry world, I have been proposed to write a message for the world puppetry day 2020, I feel excited and honored by the meaning of this privilege. Dear friends, I am proud to belong to this community of Puppeteers and to live in Central America. The problems of the region are not alien to us, as artists, we feel them in our skin and we are committed to that reality. Our authors and their works speak, they link us to this universe, to their intimacy, they reveal to us their original contribution, enriching
the history of our cultures. We, the Puppeteers, are great architects of joy, renewed, even re-invented. Nobody better than the puppets, brilliant builders of love and peace, intuit with masterful fantasy and imagination the transition from one historical moment to another. When we produce, we not only give life to the work, but also to the object, through which we communicate with society and build bridges to imagination and fantasy. This ephemeral fact stimulates the imaginary overflow of children, provokes the growth of people and the development of the community through this art. In the commitment to educate, we puppeteers have our own place. Because we obey a platform to share and exchange creative ideas and knowledge, we not only enrich the cultural heritage of each nation and of all humanity, but we are servants of the common
good. Our schools are also the squares and the roads, where we learn and teach with love, in order to conquer peace, with the art of animating objects. As Central American puppeteers we are committed to stimulating new and future generations of young people in the art of puppetry, to sow the seeds of puppetry in the region, willing to promote the noblest values, such as tolerance, understanding and peace. The
times we live in demands an enormous responsibility from us: to protect life and the planet. As puppeteers of this Central America, our commitment is to strengthen our capacities, to be better manipulators, to nurture talent and to boldly tackle new issues. Central America has lived through calamities, natural disasters, wars and social conflicts. The art for hope is part of an artistic proposal that allowed us to offer with our puppets and figures, hope to affected populations, victims of these events, this wonderful task of the puppet, that arises in the middle of hopelessness and pain, causing the laughter and the joy of life of our childhood, in the shelters and zones of conflict, as a vehicle that leads to harmony, to the protection of life, of memory, of cultural identity. Let us therefore celebrate this love not only for puppet theatre, but for the love of humanity, for understanding between people regardless of their origin, cultural differences or religious and political convictions. Let us celebrate together for Peace.

Zoa Meza
Voice from Central America

A major commitment

I was born and live on an island in the Caribbean Sea. It’s called Cuba. It is shaped like a crocodile, they say that from the sky it looks an intense green color. I don’t know any other name that makes my heart tremble as much as those four letters do. It’s not a perfect country. I know. What country can boast such a state of total correctness? We struggle every day to achieve it. As a puppeteer, I am proud to say that since 1959, from one end of this land to the other, the theatre has stood impatient and attended to in lively ways. We have formed a movement with all the aspirations and dreams of the collective where figures reign, a community that beyond differences defends alliances as a symbol of harmony and peace. What do puppets talk about in our nation? What do the public find in the shows we propose? What do the spectators need? The
questions come and go in the midst of the challenges facing the planet, that living sphere that spins in the middle of nowhere. The first stories that were performed in the Cuban altarpieces, written by the director and playwright Modesto Centeno and the poet Nicolás Guillén, in the 1940s, were influenced by the classic stories (La caperucita roja) and raised, among other concerns, the issue of racism and social inequality (Poema con niños). From those candid stagings of the Republican era, made by the Camejo and Pepe Carril brothers, Dora Alonso, Beba Farías, Dora Carvajal, Nancy Delbert and María Antonia Fariñas, among other pioneers of
the national puppetry art, the artistic creations have been changing in a hurry. Between the 20th and 21st centuries, some works written on the island begin to speak only of climatic changes and ideological
differences. The legends and fables of animals, kings, princes and princesses are ready to coexist with texts that reflect the upheavals of today’s society, alluding to the appearance of diseases and epidemics that are difficult to combat. The evils that made their appearance in the old stories of witches and sorcerers, including wars, are now a real threat, a nightmare that does not go away. The abysmal use of artificial intelligence steals the brains and souls of our young and old. What should serve to conquer the light is bent on obscuring things, creating geopolitical tensions. Countries are divided. Areas of irreconcilable friends and enemies are established, all of them involved in a contest that seems to have no end. The artists of the puppet theatre, in the midst of so much disaster, try, from our productions, to pronounce ourselves on what we
are losing, the problems that drive us away instead of uniting us. And that cry, which has begun to spread universally, is not enough. There is more to it. There is much more urgency. How can puppets, from their illusory, fragile, ephemeral cosmos, balance class differences, stimulate cultural values above the daily banality, avoid the useless deaths of thousands of children, women and the elderly, at the mercy of an economic and belligerent chaos that does not take them into account? How can we transform each gesture, each image, each sound and text proposal of our puppets and objects into a demolishing force against injustice and the absence of pacts and agreements? In the present circumstances, writing a message to be read on World Puppet Day implies a major commitment. I must trace words that fly from the waters of the Caribbean to other continents. I am referring to the authority gained by the trajectory of our puppets; they and their companions have survived hard periods, cycles that passed without faith or hope, and they are still here, as an active
part of the essential changes in favor of the human race.

Let’s help our puppets in this Don Quixotic attempt to improve coexistence on the globe! They alone will not be able to put an end to so much. The spells, spells and fantastic divinations of yesteryear are no longer valid. The struggle for existence must be shared with its makers. To this end, no possibility can be wasted from the shows themselves. There is no time to devote to telling silly stories, composing or making use of the worst of music, building dolls, costumes or sets that are absent from a creative and enriching concept. They are the best weapon in our trenches in favour of the necessary compromises for everyone, both those who make the
so-called traditional and experimental theatre. As in the chimerical stories of past centuries, I believe that one can still fly. The flight is a metaphor about the height that our plays should reach in the battle to form good men and women for the future. We must find in the animated forms new utopias, the optimism that is dying, that faith that could save us. Every time we leave the spectators with their eyes absorbed and their souls
enchanted and awakened, we will be winning a new crusade in the wonderful experience that is LIVING.

Ruben Darío Salazar
Voice from the Caribbean

Ustanova lutkovnih ustvarjalcev